Reinstalling or a new clean installation of Windows 7 is a great opportunity to create partitions or partition HDD. We will talk about how to do this in this instruction with pictures.
In this article we will assume that in general, you know how to install Windows 7 on a computer and are interested in creating partitions on the disk.
Hard drive partitioning process in Windows 7 setup
First of all, in the “Select installation type” window, you must select “ Full installation", but not "Update".
The next thing you'll see is "Select a partition to install Windows on." It is here that all the actions that allow you to crash your hard drive are performed. In my case, only one section is displayed. You may also have other options:
Existing partitions on the hard drive
- The number of partitions corresponds to the number of physical hard drives
- There is one “System” partition and 100 MB “Reserved by the system”
- There are several logical partitions, in accordance with the “Disk C” and “Disk D” previously present in the system
- In addition to those indicated, there are also some strange partitions (or one) that occupy 10-20 GB or around that.
The general recommendation is not to have the necessary data not saved on other media on those partitions whose structure we will change. And one more recommendation - do not do anything with the “strange partitions”, most likely this is a system recovery partition or even a separate caching one SSD drive, depending on what kind of computer or laptop you have. They will come in handy, and winning a few gigabytes from an erased system recovery partition may not be the best thing you ever did.
Thus, actions should be performed with those partitions whose sizes are familiar to us and we know that this is the former C drive, and this is D. If you installed new hard disk, or you just assembled a computer, then, just like in my picture, you will see only one partition. By the way, don’t be surprised if the disk size is smaller than what you bought; the gigabytes in the price list and on the hdd box do not correspond to real gigabytes.
Click Disk Setup.
Delete all partitions whose structure you are going to change. If it is one partition, also click "Delete". All data will be lost. “Reserved by the system” size of 100 MB can also be deleted, it will then be created automatically. If you need to save data, the Windows 7 installation tools do not allow you to do this. (Actually, this can still be done using the shrink and extend commands in the DISKPART program. And command line can be called up by pressing Shift + F10 during installation. But I do not recommend this to novice users, and for experienced users I have already given all the necessary information).
After this, you will see “Unallocated space on disk 0” or on other disks, according to the number of physical HDDs.
Creating a new partition
Specify the size of the logical partition
Click “Create”, specify the size of the first partition to be created, then click “Apply” and agree to the creation of additional partitions for system files. To create the next partition, allocate the remaining unallocated space and repeat the operation.
Formatting a new disk partition
Format all created partitions (it is more convenient to do this at this stage). After that, select the one that will be used to install Windows (Usually Disk 0 partition 2, since the first one is reserved by the system) and click “Next” to continue installing Windows 7.
When the installation is complete, you will see all the logical drives you created in Windows Explorer.
That's basically it. There is nothing complicated about partitioning a disk, as you can see.
Instructions
Select physical disk, on which the operating system will be installed. If the devices contain multiple hard drives disk ov, decide which one will be used for placement operating system. Discs may vary in capacity. Also on disk ah there may be sections with data. Make sure the selected disk fits, and also does not contain important ones that will be lost during further separation disk A.
Delete all sections of the selected disk A. If on hard disk If there are already created partitions, then partitioning it in the desired way is possible only by deleting and creating partitions. Select one of the hard drive sections disk A. Press D. A warning about deleting the partition will appear. Press Enter. Information about the partition to be deleted and a request for deletion will be displayed. Press the L key. Do the same operation with other sections of hard disk and allocated for installation of the operating system.
Plan your split disk A. Think about how many sections you will divide it into and what size they will be. As a rule, the optimal partitioning of the hard disk and on 2- . Pay special attention to choosing the section size. The system partition must have enough space for the initial installation of the operating system and the swap file, and there must also be space left for creating recovery points and installing application applications. software(if you plan to install application programs in this partition). Yes, tough disk with a capacity of 250 GB can be divided into 2 parts, allocating 40 GB for system partition, and the rest is a partition for data storage. In this case, it is assumed that application programs will be installed in the Program Files folder located on the system partition.
Split the hard disk in accordance with the developed partition. Select the line labeled "Unallocated area" in the section related to the partitioned disk u. Press C. In the "Create partition size (MB):" field, enter the size of the partition to be created in megabytes. If the partition sizes were selected in , simply convert them to , multiplying the value by 1024. Press the Enter key. Select the line labeled "Unallocated Area" again and do the same to create the remaining partitions.
If the list of disks only contains the item Unallocated space, this means there is not a single partition on the hard drive. To partition your hard drive, click the corresponding button in the field that appears Size enter the volume capacity in megabytes and select Apply.
How to partition a hard drive. The process of creating a new partition
In order to partition a hard drive, a system partition is first created, therefore, a dialog box will open on the screen in which the system will ask you to create a partition. And so, we need to create two sections in unallocated space:
1. Select the disk and press Disk setup.
3. Here you are not asked to create a partition on this disk. The figure below shows that by default the entire volume of our hard drive. And we need to make two disks: Local disk "C" and Local disk "D"
4. In order to create Disk C, enter in the Size window: as much as you need. In my case it will be 50 GB or 51200 MB - click Apply. Afterwards Windows will offer to create an additional partition in which it will store system files, click OK.
5. The following picture shows that windows has created hidden section for storing system files. This section will not be displayed on your computer in any way. And section 2 (Main) is the section that we just created. Next you need to create another partition for Local Disk "D" .
6. Highlight Unallocated disk space 0 and follow the link Create.
7. Windows will offer the remaining free space to create a partition, which is what we need. Click Apply to create Local Disk "D"
8. Now we have divided the hard drive into two parts, now we can continue
Partitioning a hard drive is the creation of several memory spaces on the hard drive. Physically, a PC has one hard drive, but the memory is divided into areas, which are also called. By default, there is one in the PC - C. OS files are located on it, everything that you save on the PC is also recorded there.
How to partition a new hard drive when installing Windows 7Why share the hard drive?
Over time, the drive fills up and the computer works slower because the system accesses the same device, on which, in addition to the necessary system data, the user has downloaded movies, music, etc. In this case, you need to create disk d on which to place non-system files.
By freeing up space on the hard drive partition, the system response time is reduced, since it is possible to “find” system files on the partition faster.
In addition, this is necessary if two operating systems are installed on the PC (which is possible on terabyte drives). Owners of weak and old PCs should also create a d disk on Windows 7. Then, in the event of a crash or reinstallation of the OS, they will be able to save most of the data.
Most often, two are created - system C and additional D. Sometimes a separate one can be created for each PC user, etc.
Installation breakdown
There are many ways to partition a disk in Windows 7 when the OS is already installed. These methods are suitable for those who have just bought a computer and there is only one undivided hard drive in it, or the size of the additional area is insufficient. In this case, you have to share the hard drive on an already working PC. For this purpose they are used special programs or resources Windows systems. The process is carried out using a special control console. The method is significantly different in the case when a “clean” installation of the OS is performed and it is necessary to create various spaces during the process.
One month of summer has already passed, and I haven’t really had time to rest yet, but oh well, there are still two months of rest ahead :). Today I want to tell you with an example, how to partition a new hard drive during the Windows 7 installation process.
I already wrote about how to install Windows 7, but there, as an example, I showed a hard drive already partitioned, and today I want to show how to partition this same hard drive, and where to install Windows 7.
Let's first say a few words about why partitioning a hard drive and what it will give us. For example, you bought a computer with a 750 GB hard drive, since it is new, this will be an unmarked area. You need to create at least one partition to install the operating system. Many would probably create one partition of 750 GB in size and install the operating system there. But you can’t do this, not that it’s impossible, but I don’t recommend it, as many problems may arise.
For example, I always split my hard drive into three partitions, which results in three local drives C, D and E. But it seems to me that with today’s hard drive sizes, you can make more partitions.
Why split your hard drive into multiple partitions?
Well, first of all, for convenience. Imagine if you have an operating system on one C drive of 750 GB in size, as well as all your photos, movies, games and other files. This will make it very difficult to find anything. And when divided into partitions, drive C goes under the OS, and D and E can already be used to store your files.
The second plus is that in case of problems with the operating system, or rather in case of reinstallation local disk C will most likely have to be formatted, which will destroy all information on it. Of course, it can be saved, but this is a very difficult process. Well, if you have only the operating system on drive C, and other files on drives D and E, then they will not be affected.
And it’s easier for the operating system to work with a less loaded partition, so the advantages of splitting the hard drive into several partitions are obvious.
The day before yesterday I installed Windows 7 on new laptop with a 750 GB hard drive, although in fact there was a allocated area of 689 GB. I took a few pictures of the breakdown process and today I will show them to you and describe them a little.
When the installation process comes to selecting a partition for installing the OS, we see this:
Let's start creating sections. First, let's create a partition for the operating system (drive C). I made 100 GB, click “Create” and enter the size, I entered 100,000 MB (but after creation it will be less than 100 GB, so I then wrote 120,000 MB, and the partition turned out to be 117 GB). I think this is quite enough for the OS. It all depends on the size of the hard drive, you can allocate more or less, but don’t skimp. Enter the size and click “Create”.
The system will ask you to allocate more space for the reserve area, agree.
This will be local drive D. I specified the size for it as 270 GB. Click “Apply”.
The second section is ready. Highlight “Unallocated disk space” and click “Create”. Since this was the last partition, I indicated the size of all remaining unallocated space. And of course, click “Create”.
That's all, select the section that we created for the operating system and click “Next”.
